Chapter 43 - 10% Luck

’And it’s got the spear again!’

The jet-lagged realization struck Peace twice.

’Wait...’

Peace strained his eyes to make sure the reddish film clouding his vision wasn’t playing tricks on him.

’Shit! It’s got its spear again!’

Sometime after being knocked back, the Stalker either pulled another from the ground or retrieved the one it had thrown.

Either way...

It was still underwater — ’underblood?’ —. If it threw from where they couldn’t see it, there was simply no way they’d react in time, even if its speed was hampered by the viscosity.

With trembling hands, pain and fear overrunning his thoughts, Peace could only look towards Dita.

’You—’

Dita was clutching the wounds over her left eye and thigh, worsened by her two dunks into the corrosive river.

’D-damn it—!’

She might have been in a worse state than he was.

No, she was.

It didn’t seem she had anything to heal herself, nor was it certain that consuming a Spirit Stone would have the same effect on her as it did on Peace. More likely, it would only harm her.

Suddenly, the Stalker’s head vanished beneath the surface.

’Oh no—’

Dita had slumped back onto her chest, coughing relentlessly. The recoil of her Resonance had knocked the wind out of her.

"It’s throwing! G-get ready!"

However... she didn’t move, only raising a pleading gaze towards Peace.

On his knees, his voice shuddering, he called out:

"Move! Get up!"

Weakly, she tried, only to crumple back onto her chest.

’Fuck!’

Crawling across the bone mound towards the middle, nearly capsizing their already turbulent ride with the shift, Peace caught her wrist and hauled her body to him.

Seeing his actions, Dita’s despondent eyes flew wide open.

"What are you—?!"

There was no time to weigh the risk.

The instant Peace pulled her up, he spun around, putting the Skeletal Stalker at his back, and drove his weight down over hers — blatantly relying on luck for the timing.

’Gyah!’

A sudden impact blasted through his entire body — it felt like he’d been rammed by a semi-truck.

Underneath him, Dita shouted:

"Peace!"

Using whatever strength she had left, she rolled Peace off of her, and a sharp, hollow clang rang out behind his back.

Dita’s worry quickly muddled into confusion as she looked past Peace.

"Huh—?"

On his side, Peace tilted his head down, expecting to find a gaping hole in his chest.

Yet... nothing.

’It got me... right?’

His spine had shuddered from the impact, and he was still in shock, barely able to twitch his arms. Gradually, however, the feeling began to fade.

Bracing herself with her hands against the bone mound, nearly collapsing it, Dita reached behind Peace. When her hands reappeared in his field of view, she was holding the Stalker’s spear.

’What...?’

So...

’Why am I... not dead?’

If something hit his back and the spear was right there...

’...?’

Lying down, Dita weakly held up the egg-shelled spear, examining it for a few moments before something caught her attention. Her gaze snapped upstream.

Dita let out a few guttural groans, then managed:

"Peace...! It’s coming!"

Peace, despite the pain and his protesting bones, smiled wryly.

"Ah— give me a second."

Eventually, he forced himself upright and twisted around, settling into a seated position as he faced the bounding Skeletal Stalker, which didn’t seem too pleased that they’d stolen its weapon — especially since it couldn’t summon another until the previous one sank into the bony ground.

’It’s a fricken fracken miracle.’

Without its spear, their chances of survival had made a major leap...

’From like 5% to 30%!’

Those arbitrary odds were still heavily stacked against them, but that small spark of favor reignited Peace’s waning spirit.

Curiously, Peace slid his backpack off. When he brought it in front of him, he saw a gaping hole in the leather back. Occupying the space behind it was...

’Noble Path of a True King...?’

The mysterious diary of Ixion.

There was no doubt in Peace’s mind, even if the book held no evidence of it, that it had somehow stopped the spear.

The logistics were something Peace didn’t even care to question.

He was just grateful.

After taking out a Spirit Stone, Peace slipped the backpack on. Then, he looked back at the problem at hand. The Skeletal Stalker was rapidly closing the distance.

With Dita all but unconscious, it would be up to him to hold the bastard off.

Peace looked down at Dita.

"Don’t let him have that spear."

"Wouldn’t... Not even in my wildest nightmares."

Seeing that she didn’t give him a nasty look or chide him for speaking the obvious, Dita had clearly passed her body’s limit. If not, she was close.

Using his weight, Peace steered the bone mass until Dita was on the far side, away from the approaching Stalker.

Glancing ahead, focusing on the red sky, it seemed they still had a ways to go before reaching the Convergence Zone, where the ’mindless freak’ would deaggro.

Suddenly, the Stalker jumped high into the air again, rising above Peace.

Peace felt like the world slowed as it reached its apex and began descending, one hand outstretched, just as it had a minute before.

’One shot. One opportunity.’

One mistake and he was dead.

Moving as fast as his body allowed, Peace swung the Bone Sword crosswise into the Stalker’s wrist at the perfect angle to knock it aside, in spite of their strength gap.

Wasting not a breath, Peace clamped his jaws around the skeleton’s wrist as the deflected arm swept over his left shoulder.

Peace bit down on the weathered bone.

’Uhh...?’

Only for his teeth to completely fail at anything other than leaving thin scratches.

Still with his mouth clamped around its arm, Peace’s eyes darted up just in time to watch the rest of its body come crashing down.

’I don’t think I ever want to come back to this place...’

Assuming he’d even get the chance.

Weighing much more than any skeleton should, it crashed into the bone mass, landing atop Peace.